This invention relates to an implantable pressure sensor.
In various medical diagnostic and treatment techniques, it is desirable to measure and/or sense pressures and forces within the body of the patient. For example, in patients with hydrocephalus, it may be highly useful to know the hydrostatic pressure of CSF (cerebral spinal fluid) within the ventricles inside the patient's skull. Likewise, in the treatment of hydrocephalus, it is useful to sense the force or pressure exerted by the brain against the skull and to control the venting of CSF from the ventricles in accordance with the techniques disclosed in the application of Salomon Hakim entitled Ventricular Shunt Having a Variable Pressure Valve, Ser. No. 280,451 filed August 14, 1972, now abandoned.
Among the several objects of the present invention may be noted the provision of a pressure sensor which is implantable within a patient undergoing diagnosis or treatment; the provision of such a sensor which employs only materials which are nonreactive with body fluids; the provision of such a sensor which is reliable and long-lived and which is of relatively simple and inexpensive construction. Other objects and features will be in part apparent and in part pointed out hereinafter.